Earth  ID: 4690

Tracking Snow Water Equivalent in the Tuolumne Basin

Visualizations by Kel Elkins Released on October 31, 2018
Download Options
This visualization focuses on the Tuolumne Basin, located within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, which supplies water via the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct to the San Francisco Bay Area. Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) data collected by the Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) between 2014 and 2017 is depicted in blues and whites, showing how the snowpack changes over time. This version includes a colorbar.
The Airborne Snow Observatory is an Earth-based mission designed to collect data on the snow melt flowing out of major water basins in the western United States. The data could help improve water management for 1.5 billion people worldwide who rely on snow melt for their water supply.

The Airborne Snow Observatory is a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Department of Water Resources.
Download Options
This visualization focuses on the Tuolumne Basin, located within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, which supplies water via the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct to the San Francisco Bay Area. Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) data collected by the Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) between 2014 and 2017 is depicted in blues and whites, showing how the snowpack changes over time. This version includes has no colorbar.
Download Options
Colorbar for Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) in meters

Visualization Credits

Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Laurence Schuler (ADNET): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET): Technical Support
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Producer
Judy Lai-Norling (JPL): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4690

Data Used:
Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO)/Imaging spectrometer, LIDAR/snow water equivalent (SWE) also referred to as: SWE
Observed Data - NASA/JPL, California Department of Water Resources
NASA/JPL has created the Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO), a coupled imaging spectrometer and scanning lidar system. ASO uses the imaging spectrometer to quantify spectral albedo, broadband albedo, and radiative forcing by dust and black carbon in snow. The scannin
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> Snow Cover
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Terrestrial Hydrosphere >> Snow/ice >> Snow Water Equivalent

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0